100 Theme Challenge - Noerah
by LakuriaSyaoran
Summary: I'm doing this challenge on my Tumblr, and I figured I should probably put them up here as well. When ever I put one up I'm just going to put it as a new chapter to this, although they will all probably be unrelated. It is just easier that way ; I hope you like reading these!
1. Heart

**1. Heart**

Noel held Serah close in his arms, waiting… praying for when she would wake up. She had just had another vision and was lying practically lifeless in his arms. He couldn't take this anymore. If they continued on…it was becoming more and more apparent to him that Serah would lose her life. Perhaps even with her next vision, the way she had fallen pray to this one.

Noel wanted to believe, as much as Serah did, that she would be able to find her sister. That everything was going to be alright for her. That she would live. But unlike Serah, he hadn't been taught his entire life to never give up hope. He'd seen so many people die… And Serah was only human. Noel pulled her closer against him, laying his cheek on her head, closing his eyes. He'd already lost everyone else that had ever been important to him: his parents, Yuel; and soon, Caius. _Why do I have to lose her too? Serah is all I have left, and I can't even protect her... _ He thought, sighing, trying to fight back the tears trying to well up in the corners of his eyes.

Noel soon lifted his head again, moving his way to standing up, still holding Serah up tightly in his arms. He leaned her head on his shoulder so she wouldn't hurt her neck lying back. His hand lingered for a moment against her neck; it was so warm, and he could easily feel her pulse. The thought of her still being alive was slightly comforting, but what tore him apart was he didn't know for how longer. How long before that beautiful heart of hers would stop beating all together?

Noel sighed again and started walking. He wanted to clear his mind of these thoughts. He had always had them since he had figured out Serah's fate, but as her visions had a larger toll on her body, the worry increased exponentially.

He felt Serah inhale deeply against his neck, and stopped walking for a moment to glance down at her. Her slim body moved against his, attempting to stretch out her limb before her icy-blue eyes cracked open. She blinked, a little confused as to where she was for a moment, but as her vision became clearer and she became more aware again, she figured it out. Serah lifted her head away from Noel's shoulder, her eyes soon meeting his. She smiled a little shyly at him. "I passed out again didn't I…?"

Noel nodded. "You did."

"I'm sorry Noel…"

He shook his head and sighed. "Its alright, it isn't your fault. I'm just glad to see you awake again."

Serah nodded and smiled to him. "Yeah, I'm alright now." She continued to stare up at him for a few minutes, before breaking the silence and giggling. "You can put me down now you know." She teased.

Noel chuckled lightly as well, allowing her body to slowly slip out of his arms and guiding her feet to the ground. Serah stepped away, stretching her arms over her head before they laid towards her back, hands clasped together behind her. "So, she we get going on finding that artifact then?" she asked, her ponytail bouncing over her shoulder as she looked back at him.

Noel nodded to her. "Lets. The sooner we find it, the sooner we can find Lightning." He said to her, smirking. Serah smiled bigger and nodded to him almost excitedly. "Right!"

Serah and turned forward again, and Noel looked down, the thoughts from earlier still swirling around in his head.

Little did he know that not to long in the future, he would hold onto her again, but this time, Serah wouldn't be waking up.


	2. Rain

**2. Rain**

The weather was being quite weird recently. Earlier in the week it had just been drizzly, weird enough in itself for Academia. Then a day later, it was raining pretty hard…. But now, it was full on storming. Hope had claimed that this was all normal, the world was just changing season, but this storm just seemed a little extreme for that, at least to Noel.

He had woken up again for the third or fourth time, considering he wasn't used to the noises caused by the storm, the rain, and the wind especially. He propped himself up on his arm, and glanced towards the window sleepily. He sighed, realizing that yet again, the storm was to blame for waking him, there was no danger. Noel groaned and flopped back down, his eyes wandered around the room for a bit until he felt a bit of movement next to him.

Serah wasn't having the easiest time sleeping either, although she wasn't having nearly as much trouble as him. She simply rolled over and attempted to fall back asleep.

Noel smiled, being reminded of her presence. He gently wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close to him.

"Good Morning Serah." He said quietly to her. He knew she was awake, even if she didn't want to be, she didn't move around much otherwise.

"No." Serah mumbled back at him, burying her face in her outstretched arm.

Noel chuckled lightly; he moved his hand lightly along her side. "That's not very nice."

"Stop iiitttt." She whined sleepily.

"Nu-uh. Wake up Serah." Noel continued to run his hand up and down her side.

Serah sighed and rolled over from her stomach to facing and looking up at Noel. "What?"

Noel smiled down at her and kissed her forehead. "Why are you always so grumpy in the morning?" he teased.

"Because I'm not a morning person?" Serah rubbed her eyes and just stared rather blankly up at Noel.

"So I've noticed." He remarked. He moved his hand to her hair, and started to fiddle with the long braid that was normally her ponytail.

Serah yawned. "The storm seems to have gotten worse; I hope nothing bad is happening outside."

"I'm sure everything is fine." Noel said, glancing toward the window again.

Serah decided to sit up. She rubbed her head, then got out of bed, and wandered over to the window, and looked out. Nothing seemed to be wrong, but it was pouring outside…. There was no way she wanted to even try going out in that. "Everything seems fine, but we should stay inside today, just incase…" Serah said, still looking out, her breath slightly fogging up the cold glass.

Noel had sat up as well, but didn't get up. He shook his head, chuckled at Serah. Who would look at the weather and _want_ to go out? "That's probably a good idea."

Serah turned away from the window, slightly shivering; it was rather cold in the room, especially when she just got out of bed. She crawled back on the bed and sat next to Noel, leaning her head on his shoulder.

Noel leaned over and lifted up one of the blanket on the bed, and wrapped it around both of them. "What do you want to do then?"

"I don't know." Serah answered, holding onto his arm that she was leaning on. "There isn't really much we can do, is there?"

"No, not that I can think of." Noel moved again, leaning down this time to give Serah a soft kiss, and she kissed him back gladly.

"I wouldn't mind just taking a day to relax with you." He added.

Serah giggled lightly. "I wouldn't mind that either." She said, smiling up at him.

"You're so cute." He smiled back at her and leaned his forehead on hers.

Serah sighed, beginning to relax again. She closed her eyes, just enjoying Noel's presence. He lightly stroked the side of her face with the tips of his fingers before gently kissing her again.

"Noel." She called quietly.

He backed up off her and looked a little concerned. "Hhhmm? What's wrong?"

Serah smiled. "Nothing, I just wanted to say I love you."

Noel smiled back. "I love you too Serah, very much." He linked his hands with hers happily.


	3. Pain

3. Pain

Serah had tried to stay strong. She couldn't give up hope, it was what Lightning had taught her. That one lesson had been what she had clung to for so many years of pain and heartbreak…. But even she had her limits.

Serah leaned her chin against her leg, plainly not listening to whatever Noel was trying to tell her. She couldn't hear him. She was on the brink of some big mental break down, and trying to coax herself back out. She couldn't see the way he had been very concernedly watching her as they settled down to rest for the night.

Serah's eyes were locked on the ground just under her feet, her body completely still except for her chest and stomach moving up and down as she breathed.

Noel moved over to her, his concern out weighing that she may need space in his mind.

"Serah?" he called to her again, as he had been, but he hoped his movement would have drawn her attention. He got no response from her again, so Noel lightly placed his hand on Serah's shoulder. "Serah… What's wrong?"

She jumped, feeling his touch, but glanced up to see it was only Noel. Then she looked off again. "It's nothing" She responded quietly.

"Alright…If you say so, but if you want to talk, I'm here for you, ok?" He said sighing. He knew that something was bothering her, but Noel knew better then to try and pressure Serah into talking. It would cause whatever problem she was having to be taken out on him. He just watched her helplessly… He hated seeing her so upset, more then anything actually, but there wasn't anything he could do for her if he wasn't allowed to know the problem.

Serah simply nodded. "I know" she said while wrapping her arms around her legs. "You've always been there for me… since I've known you."

"And I never plan on letting that change." Noel said, giving her a confident smile. "Everyone needs someone they can count on, and well…" Noel chuckled slightly, not believing he was saying such rather "sappy" sounding things. "You're my someone, so, I figure I'd return the favor."

Serah glanced over to him, and gave a slight smile. "Thanks, Noel." She sighed, closing her eyes.

"You're welcome, you going to be ok?"

"I hope so…"

Noel sighed again. "Now I _know_ there is something wrong." he moved to sit in front of her, crossing his legs. "Common Serah, talk to me. I know things have been hard on you, but I don't know how to help you if you won't tell me what's wrong. I can't read your mind."

Serah adjusted her position uneasily. "I'm just… fed up." She glanced up at him, but her head was still facing towards the ground. "I'm fed up and I don't know… I feel alone- Not to say that I am, I know you're here. But I just- I don't know…"

Noel shook his head. "I understand, don't worry about it. It's hard seeing everyone you love leave you… I know."

Serah nodded, leaning her chin on her knee again. "Everyone who was ever there for me is gone, nothing makes sense and I hate it!" She shut her eyes tight, trying to fight back the tears that where trying to form. "I just want something to make sense…something to be stable and normal so I don't go crazy!"

Noel looked at her a little curiously, leaning over to his arm, which was now resting on his leg. "That is kind of hard thing to ask for when you're a time traveler…."

"I know, I know." She sniffled. "But I'm not used to this… I've always had something- _someone_ to fall back on. Lightning was always there for me, and when she stopped, I had Snow. But now, even he's left me! and I don't even know if he'll ever come back!" Serah buried her face into her arms and started t cry.

Noel sighed. _That_ was the problem. Serah was trying to deal with Snow in her mind. They had just seen him recently after all. Noel scooted towards Serah, and rubbed her back with one hand, silently watching her.

"He was supposed to be there for me, He promised he would be, but he hasn't been in years!" she yelled into her arms.

He sighed again, continuing to rub her back, it was the best way he could think of the comfort her. "There really isn't much you can do about that. Snow's just going to continue to do what he wants." Noel made a fist at his side. Snow had already pissed him off _enough_ but seeing how much Serah was hurting, it just made it worse.

"I know. He's always done what he wanted. I used to like that about him but now, I don't. I don't like it at all! I wanted to see him again so badly, and its like he didn't even care! He just wanted to beat the stupid giant tomato monster. He didn't even care about me!" She cried.

"Has this been bugging you this entire time Serah?" Noel asked, letting his hand linger on her shoulder.

Serah nodded. "I can't deal with this anymore."

Noel stayed quiet for a minute. He had something that he _wanted_ to tell her. But he wasn't so sure if that was a good idea. I didn't want to go giving her bad advice, Serah was pretty impressionable, but still, he couldn't think of anything else to tell her. Nothing else in is mind seemed right.

"Then don't Serah. You don't have to deal with it if you don't want to. You're allowed to make your own choices, and run your own life. You don't always have to rely on doing whatever others want of you." Noel was looking directly at her as he spoke, even if she wasn't looking back. "No one will blame you for following what would make you happy. "And if they do," Noel chuckled. "I'll be sure to give 'em a piece of my mind. You've been hurt enough."

Serah's body trembled listening to Noel's words. She managed to lifter her head out of its hole in her arm, and lean her cheek on it, looking to Noel with her tear stained eyes. She could tell by his expression that he was completely serious about this. She simply stared back at him for a few minutes before saying anything else. "Thank you Noel…" Serah closed her eyes, allowing a few more tears to fall down her face.

Noel reached out his hand and lightly brushed her tears away. "You don't need to thank me. I hate seeing you so heart broken. I just want you to feel better, and see a smile return to your face." He smiled at her to hopefully cause her to do the same.

Serah did smile back slightly, but, surprisingly to Noel, she uncurled her body, and crawled over to hug him, tightly.

Noel sighed and hugged her back. "It'll be ok, you'll see…" he said quietly, assuring her.

Serah nodded into him, her breathing was still shaky, but calming down considerably.

"Feel better that you got that out?"

Serah lifted her self up, whipping her eyes on the back of her wrist. "A little…" She gave him a slight smile.

"Only a little?" he asked with a bit of a confused tone.

Serah nodded, but quickly glanced away again, looking towards the darkened sky.

"…. Is there something else wrong?" He asked, noticing that she was still averting her gaze from his.

"No, not really 'wrong'…" She paused, unsure if she really wanted to state this. But telling Noel how she felt did make her feel a lot better just now… but this part was harder. If he didn't- things would be back to how they were. She had to tell herself that.

"But Snow is uh…." She glanced a little shyly at him. "Snow is only half the problem."

Noel raised a brow at Serah. "Alright then, what's the other half?"

Serah averted her gaze again.

Noel sighed, rolling his eyes. "Common, don't play your little games with me. You know you'll just end up telling me anyways. Out with it." Noel smirked at her.

"Nooooooel…" She whined, glancing back at him.

"Whaaaaat?" He imitated her playfully.

Serah's expression turned into more of a pout at his imitation. "You're not helping."

He chuckled and smiled at her. "I'm just going to continue to tease you until you tell me what the other half of the problem is."

She sighed, and looked at Noel's eyes, and waited.

Noel got the hint and calmed himself back down from his playfulness, ready to listen to her again.

But Serah still said nothing. She just stared at him, her eyes looking him over carefully. She aced like she wanted to speak, but it was almost as if she physically couldn't.

"Serah-" Just as soon as Noel had opened his mouth to speak, he was shut up. Serah lightly pressed her lips against his, and was grasping onto his shirt. He inhaled sharply through his nose in surprise.

The kiss didn't last long. Serah was rather afraid, so just as quickly as she had leaned in to kiss him, she backed off again. "Y-you're the other half" She muttered to him before going to stand up.

Noel blinked. He was pretty shocked, and very confused. It took him even more time to register what Serah said. But once he did, his hand quickly shot up to grab Serah's wrist before she could walk away from him and hide. He quickly brought himself to him feet.

Serah attempted to jerk her arm away, once, but she knew after that it was no use.

"Hey, don't run away from me." Noel tightened his grip slightly. "It's ok Serah. I told you…"

She glanced back at him curiously, relaxing her body a bit.

Noel smiled, and pulled her close to him. "I don't mind being a problem. But, I know that this one I can fix." He lightly stroked her cheek as she looked up at him. "I really like you Serah. And as I said before, I will always be here for you. I promise."

Serah smiled shyly up at him. "I really like you too, Noel."

Noel leaned down, lightly kissing her lips in return for earlier. "Well then, I guess you have nothing else to worry about, hhmm?" He commented rather snarkily.

"I guess I don't. Not anymore."


	4. Noise

(( I actually wrote this one a few weeks ago... I don't know why I didn't upload it, here. but I hope you enjoy!))

Serah turned in her chair slightly, peeking behind her across the room. She had been a little behind grading her students papers, so she was still up sitting at her desk finishing them off when her ears picked up movement behind her. Noel had fallen asleep a few hours ago so for the most part the entire room had been silent except for her turning pages or writing things down.

She glanced over at their bed, wondering if he'd somehow woken up. "Noel?" she called quietly, and waited a moment for a response. None was given, however the boy seemed to roll over and face away from her.

Serah smiled lightly, shaking her head. "Sorry I'll be done in a bit." She whispered again, figuring the light from her lamp was bothering him.

She turned back to her papers, and managed to get through another two or three before she heard him moving around again. This wouldn't have been a big deal, if she hadn't been used to sleeping beside him by now. He wasn't generally the kind of person that moved a lot in his sleep. She kind of figured it was his body's way of compensating for how much he didn't _stop_ moving while he was awake. Something was up.

Serah set down her things, and got up from her desk, still peering over the bed. "Noel, are you alright?" She called to him again. He still didn't answer again, which was a bit worrisome. Serah sighed and crawled onto the bed, sitting next to him. She looked him over closer and sighed. Noel wasn't awake, but he did look rather pained via his expression, and the way his fingers where dug into the blankets.

Serah laid her hand she wasn't using for support on top if his and held it lightly.

"It'll be ok Noel" She whispered calmly to him. She knew in some people could hear and understand voices outside ones created in their own heads while they slept, so she figured it was worth a shot to try. She'd never had to do this before, usually it was Noel trying to calm her down from nightmares.

It seemed to be working though. Serah had been gently rubbing her thumb against his hand, and she could feel his grip become looser and more relaxed. Speaking to him also seemed to be helping a great deal.

Serah leaned over and lightly kissed his head. "See? You're alright." She smiled softly, and started to moved to get back to her desk.

Noel however groaned and rolled over, wrapping his arms tightly around her waist.

"H-hey." Serah couldn't help but be a little amused, though now she was kind of stuck. "Noel I need to get back to work…" She giggled lightly, and tried to move his arms away from her. That wasn't working to well. "Ugh. You're even stronger then me when you're sleeping." She said a little irritated.

Serah sighed, looking around. Not much she could really do if he wouldn't let go. "What's going on with you…" She asked, lightly running her fingers through his hair.

A little while later Noel stirred again, but this time, opened his eyes to look around.

"Serah?" He let her go, and lifted himself to sit up. "Something wrong?" He asked sleepily.

Serah shook her head and smiled. "No. Nothing's wrong."

He looked at her a little confused. "Then why are you just sitting here?"

Serah let out a giggle. "Well I was trapped till you sat up~. I had been trying to comfort you 'cause you seemed to be having a bad dream, but when I went to get up and get back to work you clung onto me."

Noel let out a small chuckle. "Sorry." He then leaned over to hug her. "Thank you though. I'm pretty sure you did help."

"What were you dreaming about?" She asked, hugging him back. "I don't think I've ever seen you look so upset…"

Noel shook his head. "It was nothing, don't worry about it." He smiled at her. "How much more work do you have to do?" He asked.

Serah sighed; aware he was trying to change the subject. "Not very much, but I do need to get it done."

"Alright." Noel yawned. "Don't stay up too much later Serah. You need your sleep too."

She smiled. "I know it'll be like another half hour or something, then I'll get in bed."

Noel nodded, and leaned in to kiss her. "Love you."

Serah kissed him back happily. "Love you too. And sweet dreams this time~" She teased.

"Hopefully, it's not like I enjoy having nightmares." He smiled back at her, then laid back down so she could get back to work.

She had estimated her time just about right, she'd finished all of her grading within the next forty minutes at least. Serah got up and changed into pajamas, and then crawled back into bed. Noel was fast asleep again, but this time didn't seem to be having any sort of nightmare. Serah smiled at his sleeping face, and curled herself up next to him.

"Goodnight." She whispered before closing her eyes.

She smiled again when she felt Noel's arm snake its way over her side and pull her closer. That was ok with her.


	5. Surprise

(( I wrote this on a whim because of my Serah muse for my RP blog. She wants this to happen...))

"Hey Serah?" Noel called out to her, walking in the door to their house. "Can you come here please?"

"Yeah, hold on a second." She called back, lifting herself up from her spot on the couch. She'd gotten home around her normal time, mid afternoon after teaching classes, and had been relaxing waiting for Noel to get home as well. She walked up to him, but, put a hand on her hip. "Where have you been?" She asked raising a brow to her boyfriend.

Noel chuckled, and rubbed the back of his head. "I told you this morning I was going to go visit Hope. You not hear me in your rush to get to work?"

Serah looked confusedly at him, trying to remember him saying anything of the sort. "….I guess not." She sighed. "You have fun? How is he?"

Noel nodded. "Yeah, had fun. Hope's good too. But~ I'll give you details in a little bit, ok?" He gave her a playful grin. "I got you something while I was over there."

Serah blinked, surprised. "W-what? Noel, you didn't have too…"

Noel shook his head. " Its no big deal. I saw an opportunity to make you happy, so, I took it." He crossed his arms. "So, you want to know what it is?"

"Sure…" Serah answered, looking at him even more confused because of his answer. It wasn't like it was uncommon for Noel to randomly get her things…. But he was acting weird about this one.

"Alright, stay here for a second. Ok?"

"Ok ok." Serah giggled. She was getting more curious about this little surprise he had. Noel sure seemed excited about it whatever it was.

Noel walked back out the door for a moment, making sure Serah wasn't trying to peek. He stayed out there for only a minute or two, before returning inside, and holding a very tiny brown and tan stripped kitten against his chest.

Serah gasped, and her face lit up into a very bright smile seeing the little kitty. "Noel!" was all she could really get out of her mouth before stepping closer to him and being distracted by the cat.

Noel laughed. "One of Hope's coworkers was asking around if anyone wanted a kitten because they couldn't keep all of the ones that their cat had had recently." Noel smiled to Serah and handed over the little kitten to her. "I know you've wanted a cat for a while, so I figured I'd take one of them."

"Noel… I don't even know what to say." She said, making sure the kitten was safe in her arms, and petting it lightly. "Thank you so much…." She glanced back up at him, still with a huge smile on her face.

"You're welcome Serah. I hope I did a good job picking. I don't know how to go about picking a cat…" He chuckled. "This one seemed more interested in playing then the others did, so I picked her."

Serah nodded to him. "I think you did fine. She's really cute, and isn't scratching either of us. So that's good." She giggled. Just then the kitten started to wiggle around a bit, and try to crawl up Serah's shoulder. "Uh oh, kitty, you won't be as safe if you're up there." She giggled, readjusting her arms to make sure the kitten didn't try anything dangerous. "Do you have any ideas for a name?" Serah looked to Noel curiously.

Noel shrugged. "I was going to leave that up to you."

She looked at noel with a mischievous grin. "Well, the last cat I had, I named after Snow~" She giggled. "Maybe her name should be Noel?"

Noel laughed and shook his head. "I don't know about that one. It could be confusing having two Noel's in the house. Plus, I don't want to be out-cuted by a cat." He teased back.

Serah nodded. She didn't actually want to name her that, as Noel said, too confusing. "Hhhmm… what if we named her after my sister? Lightning isn't around much for it to get confusing." Serah tilted her head. "We could call her Light, 'cause I don't use that name for sis."

"Sure." Noel nodded. "And if Lightning was over we would have little Light and big Light."

"Yes. I like this!" Serah said excitedly. She looked down at the kitten again, though with the same excitement. "You're name is Light little kitty. And you're going to grow up big and strong just like the human one~"

Noel couldn't help but laugh. "Hopefully she won't turn as mean as the human one." he stepped closer to Serah and kissed her forehead. "I'm glad you're happy Serah."

"Very. You're the best boyfriend ever." She smiled up at him.

"I don't know about that, but, I'm glad you think so." He smiled back at her before stretching his arms above his head. "I'm going to go take a nap I think. I'm tired from running around all day."

Serah nodded. "I understand. I'd join you, but you know I'd be up all night then. So I'll just stay out here and see if I can figure out some things that this little kitty needs."

Noel nodded. "I figured as much. Have fun with that."

"Oh trust me I will." She grinned, shooing Noel off to go sleep.


End file.
